Welcome to AirNenky's Cabinet of Curiosity's, a production of I Heart Radio and Grimm

and Mild.

Our world is full of the unexplainable.

And if history is an open book, all of these amazing tales are right there on display,

just waiting for us to explore.

Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosity's.

London is one of the world's great banking cities.

There's no question there.

And like so many parts of London's history, we can trace London's banking routes back

to the Middle Ages, 1185 to be exact.

But the city's first bank wasn't so much founded, as it was consecrated.

You see, that's when a church in London was made the home of monks who were already

controlling the wealth of monarchs and landowners across Europe.

Chartered by the Pope in 1119, it took the order only a few years before King Alfonso

I of Eragon had given them a castle in his will.

Maybe he liked that each monk had to take a vow of poverty and chastity before they joined

the order.

Maybe he just wanted to get a little credit with heaven when he set out toward his final

destination.

But he wasn't the only one.

Even a few years, the monks were managing a massive fortune around Spain, something like

a third of the kingdom.

...